Planting design for the 85 footer

This is the 85 foot hoophouse that is withstanding the winds, in some way shape or form. The left side of this diagram is North. The end is attached to the barn and there is a 4 foot by 8 foot door in the center of that end. At the top right, on the narrow end is a sliding window, about 3.5 ft x 3.5 ft. I can open one half of this at a time. Not a lot of flow but I am putting a large 3 ft sq fan in the opposite wall at the top of the hh. The top of this fan will be about 12 feet high and will move the hottest air out of the hh during the summer.

The water supply for this hh is to the bottom left, on the barn wall. All these rows will be watered by soaker hoses. These hoses are recycled rubber and they kinda just sweat the water out.

The checkerboard/graph areas are walkways in between the rows. The walkways are about a foot wide, with the working areas on the ends about 3 foot deep.  I think there will be mulch in them so that from walking on the mulch we will be aiding in the breaking down of the material. I would like to use straw or wood chips. I have the chips, would have to find the straw.

The largest middle bed is all tomatoes and basil on the outside. These are companion planted. Kind of sets the stage for some Italian sauces. This row is about 80 feet long and 6 foot wide. All the rows are 6 foot wide but as you can see we have many different types of vegetables to plant, care for and harvest. This row has 96 tomato plants in it. It also has 323 basil plants!

The top row has the following in it (gray) 63 Oregano, (blue) 322 in the two beds Onions, (Green) 630 Radishes, (Pink) 152 Spinach, (Pink) 65 Swiss chard, (Green) 64 Broccoli. 

The bottom row has the following in it (Gray) 9 New Zealand Spinach-which grew like weeds last summer and fall, (Blue) the second sections of Onions, (Gray) 256 Leaf Lettuce, (Green rows) 87 crisphead Lettuce, (Blue) is 420 of peas(seems like a lot!), (Pink) 140 Beet plants, (Orange) 608 Carrots, (Green) 72 Arugula, (Blue) 64 Chives, and finally (Green) 152 Turnips.

I used the garden planner from Mother Earth News to set these all up. It is pretty easy to learn and operate. It is free for 30 days and has a nominal cost per year after this. Some of the limits I learned are-limited plant breakouts for over 93 feet-strange number. 

The next bed, only outdoors will be a quarter acre of potatoes. I always count an acre as 200×200 feet. I think they are about 208.7 a side if square. The potato bed is going to be 100×100 appx. I might have to run it long maybe 50 ft wide x 218 ft long.

some of the Swiss Chard can go in now. Most of the rest will go in in March and almost all of it will be in in April. I am planning on the unheated hoophouse to extend the growing season about 4-6 weeks on a side. The average last frost here in zone 6a is about the 15th of May. The USDA hardiness zones were just updated and I am almost sure we moved into the 6a zone last year. This is a shift to a warmer zone, maybe from the warming of the atmosphere. The zones are determined mainly by the median lowest temp in the winter.

I will write of the other three houses in the next week or so. We have the 35 footer in pieces that were moved back here from KS. I have used some of the hoops to replace the bent ones on the 85 footer. Fortunately I have worked out how to use the bent ones in the 35 footer without too much difficulty. The 35 will be erected as soon as the frost comes out of the ground.

We are also getting a grant (hope it’s not effected by the budget row coming up on 1 March) for a couple thousand more feet under hoophouses.  I am planning to build a 48×20 and a second one 72×20. I think these will be here before Memorial Day(the end of May). Any volunteers to help with putting these up-Welcome!!! hahaha  All the videos on Youtube about building these have 20 or 30 people working in harmony to do the building. I might have to crank out another 12 to 18 personalities to handle this kind of working environment! hahaha

More later and of course,

Be well;peace…dan